he men screwed together four sections of a hollow aluminum tube White had carried on his backpack. With a vigorous twisting of a handle attached to the cylinder, he drove it into the layers of snow. It didn't hit dirt for another 7 feet. After pulling up the snow-filled tube, White weighed it to gauge the water content. The Dana Meadows snowpack had enough water to form a 3-foot-deep lake. From the Sierra Nevada and the Cascades to the northern Rockies, much of the West's high country remains buried under a thick snowpack that is filling reservoirs and engaging dam operators in a nerve-racking balancing act as they watch for jumps in temperature that could turn all those scenic piles of white into raging floodwaters.

If anyone knows... I'd like to know why they removed the "Flyover" Snow Survey markers recently.I've seen them no longer in place from a number of locations within the past few years.Is it because they want to do it manually? Take multiple readings?Flying is too dangerous? Money plays into it?

We ran into a ranger who was removing one of the snow survey markers in the Lake Vernon area a few years ago. She said the surveys are all done via modern methods now, remote sensors, electronically. The pole removal was in accordance with NPS wilderness policy; over the years they've been active in hauling all sorts of man-made junk out of there.

I'm pretty sure this is what you are talking about, the marker that is (was?) at Beehive:

Yup. That's it. The one in Paradise Valley is gone. As is the one on Kibbie ridge to name a couple others.Thanks. Interesting about "modern methods" b/c they still ski up and do it by hand.The auto sensor at Paradise has been AWOL for a couple of years now from my recollection.

BTW, why are you assuming that they're from horse-packers? I don't see any reason why horse-packers would need to stash things out in the wilderness, or dump things there. Hauling things in and out of the wilderness shouldn't be a problem for horse-packers.

BTW, why are you assuming that they're from horse-packers? I don't see any reason why horse-packers would need to stash things out in the wilderness, or dump things there. Hauling things in and out of the wilderness shouldn't be a problem for horse-packers.

Horse packers tend to dump anything that is surplus. It's been paid for by the client and the packers tend to minimize the load on the animals when they pack out.